Stairway To Heaven
by TemporaryObsession
Summary: It ain't over till its over. Aizen may have destroyed Karakura Town but Ichigo still has one more fight left in him.


**How do you think Bleach will end? **

**I know his dad appeared in the latest chapter but I wrote this from before so...enjoy! **

**Don't own Bleach  
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** Stairway to Heaven**

He had failed.

Ichigo could barely think past the pain. _The pain._ His throat felt like a scorpions nest, his chest felt hollow _literally _hollow. He tried to move his hands to feel what had happened only to realize he couldn't move. He was paralyzed with pain, he couldn't tell his toes from his neck, his wrist from his ankles. He was just a mass of bubbling agony.

But none of that compared to _the pain. _Not the physical pain _that_ he could deal with, he was no stranger to it after all. No, the pain he was feeling was much worse. He let out a strangled sob.

Images passed through his mind like a broken projector. A few memories from the moments before he'd lost consciousness.

_Aizen telling him that he had simply been another pawn in his grand chess game._

_Him fighting Aizen with all he had only to see the hougokyo's powers regenerates its wielder._

_Aizen piercing his chest with his ice-cold fingers and reminding him of how badly he'd failed. _

He remembered thanking the gods, not that he believed in them anymore—if he ever did, that Rukia was safe—if you could call it that—in Hueco Mundo. It was such a selfish and purely human thought. All around him was destruction but all he could think about was her safety.

Safe for that moment at least. Aizen had probably made his way to the Shinigami Kings Palace by now no one was safe anymore.

Ichigo opened both his eyes and to his great surprise found himself looking at endless sea of blue sky. He was in a crater he dully noted, a very large crater even by his standards and a fair share of craters.

He thought about his family. _Who were dead. _ His friends. _Who believed in him until the very end and he had failed them anyway. _ Rukia. _If only he'd been strong enough…_

All of them gone. So why was he still here? He had failed. He deserved to die! Not them. Never them.

The pain and anguish bubbled in his chest giving him one last ounce of strength. "DAMN YOU AIZEN!" _for not killing me too._

Ichigo closed his eyes as he waited for death to collect him.

* * *

Death came in the form of Urahara. Go figure death would look like him, Ichigo thought wryly. "Hmmm." Urahara said tapping his signature fan against his lip while his hat hid his eyes. "So you survived after all."

He was no longer in a crater, Ichigo suddenly realized, his eyes roamed around his new surroundings. He was in Uraharas shop the mere idea was so ridiculous it was comical.

"Am I in hell?" Ichigo croaked. Urahara frowned and waved his fan hysterically. "Hell? I'm offended Kurosaki-san!"

Ichigo ignored him. "Why am I on a futon…" Urahara flapped his fan. "You're not in hell Kurosaki-san. You aren't even dead."

Ichigo's head snapped towards him. "I lost. Aizen got the key. I have to be dead. This—"

He said turning his head to gesture to the shop. "Was all destroyed it cant be real. And you—you're…" Ichigo choked on the last part. He couldn't say _dead. _

"You're right. Aizen did destroy Karakura town, and the original shop was destroyed. But you are not in the original shop and you have not failed…yet." Urahara said still waving his fan.

Ichigo looked away. "You can still save everyone. It doesn't have to end here. _She's _still alive you know."

Ichigo stiffened scared to let a shimmer of hope into his heart. "Aizen was weak after the fight. To weak to cross over, but he'll be fully healed soon. The hougokyo gives great power but…at a terrible price." The last part was more to himself than to Ichigo.

"Where are we?" Ichigo asked.

"Other than Karakura Town the rest of the living world is in tact. We're in a town a couple miles east of there. I moved the shop before the fight."

"You knew it would end like this?" Ichigo asked wearily.

Urahara was silent for a while. "Yes." He finally answered with short breath. "I never planned for you to win the encounter with Aizen."

Ichigo's face crumpled with rage. "_Plan? _You planned for this to happen? You—is this some kind of game for you?" He felt his burned out muscles tremble with anger and pain. "If I had known it was hopeless from the beginning—"

"What?" Urahara demanded. "Would you have made a deal with Aizen? Given up without a fight? What you have done differently?"

_Nothing, _Ichigo realized. "This isn't a game for me." Urahara said in a pained tone Ichigo had never heard him use. "I've lost people too." Ichigo noticed that Yoruichi wasn't around and he couldn't sense her spiritual pressure either.

"You said there's still a chance. A chance I could beat Aizen." Ichigo asked quietly. Urahara nodded. "Before you didn't have the resolve to defeat Aizen."

"But I did! I was trying to protect everyone—"

"That's not enough." Urahara snapped severely. Ichigo shut his mouth in surprise. "To defeat someone like Aizen you can't depend on petty emotions like that. You have to fight to _kill._ You didn't have that before but now…"

Ichigo's amber eyes blazed as he remembered his final vision of his hometown, a large crater in the earths crust. If he didn't have the resolve before he sure as hell did now. Aizen would die for this.

"_This _is your last chance Ichigo, you either defeat him before he reaches the Kings Palace or else it's all over."

"I couldn't beat him before. What makes you so sure I can beat him now? I don't have any new techniques and I'm no master strategist. I'm still the same Ichigo who got his butt kicked."

"But now you have something you didn't have before."

"What?"

"You have nothing left to loose. Aizen now has more at stake than you do. That might tip the scale. Soul Society has fallen. Your hometown destroyed. You've lost it all, hit rock bottom. And now the only way from here is up." he said. "But Aizen is nearing his climax he can fall. Do you understand?"

Urahara watched the man in front of him quietly as he let his words sink in. Ichigo nodded. "Where is he? Where is Aizen?"

Urahara smiled. "I thought you'd never ask."

Aizen was so close.

He stood at the base of the staircase alone. His "comrades" or pawns as he referred to them were gone. Touzen was weak and had to be disposed of but that hadn't come as much of a surprise.

The real surprise had been Gin. His betrayal had been quite a surprise. Aizen had been about to wipe Izuru and Mastumoto off the face of the planet when Gin stepped in to protect them. For a while him and Ichigo had managed to fight him but after a while endless fighting both had succumbed. Gin was never his equal in power and Ichigo lacked the resolve.

The steps were long and made of glimmering white marble and they floated in a sea of endless sky. At the top of the epic winding staircase was a large temple. A palace fit for a king maybe but not for a god. When he stood atop the heavens that would be the first thing to go.

A dark figure about half way up the staircase awaited him.

His amber eyes were dark with hatred. His bankai hung casually at his side and the wind knocked at his black duster. This man wasn't taking prisoners he was lost from compassion. He would cut down anyone that got in his way.

Ichigo.

He looked down at Aizen with unforgiving eyes.

"This ends here." the man before him spoke. Aizen felt his hand tremble in anticipation. Looking like the angel of death he was, Ichigo used his pitch-black katana and made an invisible line on the staircase. "You wont cross this line."

"So it begins." Said Aizen preparing to release his bankai.

"So it ends." Said Ichigo pulling on his mask.


End file.
